Hope in Waitinge stood together at the icy-cold window. Outside, bowed winter grass and scattered brown leaves sparkled white with frost in the morning sun. Inside, the warm air smelled of baking cinnamon rolls and freshly sliced citrus. My sister...
Sprinkles for the Savior
Sprinkles for the Savior he Christmas season often brings with it many traditions, especially those that include extra baking of all sorts of treats. My childhood through my adulthood with my own children included the usual making of sugar cookies...
Baby Jesus and the Six Cats of Christmas
Baby Jesus and the Six Cats of Christmasam not a big decorator, and I have not purposefully established a Christmas tradition. I do, however, set out two decorations each December: a nativity set with small figurines, and the book The Twelve Cats...
A Time to Give
A Time To Givehis is the first year that my husband and I are spending Christmas together as a married couple, and to be completely transparent, deciding how to spend the holidays has been a big source of tension in our new marriage. When we first...
Seven Fish, One Light
Seven Fish, One Lights an adult, many of my Christmas Eves were spent with my wife and children at our small, local church service. The kids and I would hang up our coats, grab a candle out of the box, and proceed to the pew closest to the piano....
Christmas Cards and Open Hearts
Christmas Cards and Open Heartsy recently married cousin called the other day to ask if she needed to start sending Christmas cards now that she was officially an adult. She liked receiving cards but wasn’t sure that she was ready to get on board...
Light Work
Light Workhated the idea of hanging Christmas lights outside of our home. I thought it was a waste of time to put up lights only to take them back down a few weeks later. My wife, on the other hand, had trouble imagining Christmas in our home...
The Wonder of Advent
The Wonder of Advents a child, I would eagerly await the arrival of December 1, the day we could start opening our Advent calendars. The thick, paper calendars – imported from Europe by my mom who’d spent most of her childhood there as a missionary...